Programming:Destruction Inspiration

It was strangely challenging to find a good video, but I managed to find some inspiration videos for the destructible objects which will be in my level. I'd like to build a glass screen that projects scifi-esque graphics that the player can run through and break with their vehicles.

Visual References:

3D Vehicle:1966 Impala SS

Due to some serious issues with Maya I'm deathly afraid of putting the more fixed-up version of my car into UDK, so here's the (just about) final vehicle for my 3D class. I'm not very keen of vehicles of any sort so modeling this has been a really interesting, and painful, experience. Can't wait to drive this baby around in our racing levels for my game design class though!

Here's the finalized model in Maya. The program has been hell for me this semester due to it destroying my model because of history issues or other but I came out on top in the end! We had a 50,000 poly limit for our cars and I managed to make it to exactly that...Of course I had to do some intense poly hunt down to get rid of any extra.

The textured version of my Impala. This will have been the very first car I've ever modeled and textured so I think it came out pretty decent. I'd love to go back and tweak it in the future though after this semester ends. Maybe I'll add some wacky thrusters or something to it.

Programming: Exploding "Barrel"

Here's my exploding barrel project preview! Exploding robot drones, whoohoo! Anyhow, I still need to fix some issues with the smoke emitters but the explosions are bombastic at least.

Racing Level Intro Sequence

Lots of racing games have level intros that pump up a player for the inevitable race or exist to give you a mere glimpse at what your player is in for. Sometimes they're awesome, or they fall flat. Continuing with my racing level I have to look towards creating an interesting level sequence for a player. I looked for any and every type of racing game that could offer proper inspiration for this task, and believe me it's harder to one that actually has what I was looking for, and I ended up with Twisted Metal.

As far as level intros go this game has got some pretty good ones. Not only does the intro display the whole level the player will be racing in against others, but it also does a show-and-tell of what the player needs to accomplish for said level they're playing in. In my opinion it's a pretty cool way to do a level introduction sequence.

Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed also offers some cool level intros as well. They each display the "tracks" the player will race on. This is a good detail to show the player so they're better prepared for the obstacles they may face while racing and it also gives them a sense of the scale and appearance of the track which may help in their racing performance.

Wendigo WIP

Before I get into my heavy workload for the weekend I'm playing around with some old zbrush projects again!

Racing Level: "Barrel"

We have to design an explosive object for our levels, something akin to a barrel. Since my level is based around a city being attacked by robots I thought it would be cool to create mini-robot drones that explode when the player drives near them.

The drone has a basic neutral state until the player runs into it. From there it should enter a damage state where it starts to spark and smoke. After taking enough damage the drone will explode and break into pieces.

Creature Of The Week 2: Armadillian

A simple creature design based off of combining an armadillo and various lizards. 

They have hardened shells connected to their backs and strong arms for digging into the ground. 

                                     

Curlhead

Another creature/character design! More of a scifi/alien theme too. I thought of a worm based kind of biped here that uses a sort of sensor in it's head-curl to pick up vibrations to "hear" around it's environment.

Creature of the Week: Familiar

So to fill up my blog a bit more I'm going to do a creature/character design for every week. To start off, here's a little design I have for a creature called a Familiar. Basically it's a monster brought up through a witch's conjuration to aid them in whatever they need. Like house cleaning or taking out a vampire. The head is a basic animal skull which is enchanted by a witch and acts as the attachment to the Familiar's body. The skull sort of acts as the battery power for the creature and keeps it active unless a witch takes it off.

Racing Isometric Map

The final isometric design for my level map!